workers rights

“If they’re clocked in before they’re scheduled to work, then you don’t have to pay them.” This is a tip Eddie Wu, owner and chef at Cook St. Paul, received from another local chef de cuisine from a well-known Minneapolis restaurant. “In a proud way, they were [explaining] how many hours they were able to shave off their payroll and hedge it,” said Wu.

Wage theft occurs when workers don’t receive their legally or contractually agreed upon wages. This could be non-payment of overtime, paying below the minimum wage, not paying for all hours worked, requiring off-the-clock work, stealing or manipulating tip payouts or not paying an employee a final check.

This type of theft within the foodservice industry can be obvious, like not paying overtime wages, but there are quieter tactics and loopholes that unscrupulous owners or managers take advantage of, often going unnoticed by workers.

The most recent compliance sweep conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division from 2010-2012 that within nearly 9,000 full-service restaurants, approximately 84 percent of restaurants had at least one violation. This resulted in the department’s recovering approximately $57 million in back wages for about 82,000 workers. Continue Reading

If you were to turn over a chair in a Minnesota public library, like at the Buckham Memorial Library in Faribault, you might find a tag noting the chair was manufactured by MINNCOR, a quasi public-private business operation within the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC). MINNCOR products are made by Minnesota inmates who make furniture for everything from public libraries to student dormitories. They also weld docks for Minnesota lakes and pack balloons destined for festive events. Additionally, minimum security work crews organized through the DOC – separate from MINNCOR’s operations – build low-income homes in greater Minnesota and have even assembled a sports facility dome on the University of Minnesota campus. The work of these inmates is all around us, yet hidden in plain sight. Continue Reading

Jesse, an inmate whose name has been changed for his safety, began his incarceration in 2006 initially working as a baker for 25 cents an hour in St. Cloud. He later got a job pressing license plates for 50 cents an hour. During yet another job in prison folding and packaging balloons, Jesse noticed the balloons were being transported and sold by Anagram. While getting paid pennies on the dollar, his labor was being exploited for corporate profit. Continue Reading

With a first degree possession of a firearm and a second degree possession of a controlled substance on his record, Jason Sole had a tough time finding meaningful work when he got out of prison. “[Employers] didn’t see my value, they only saw me as a deficit,” said Sole. His first job out of prison was working at a Holiday Inn for $10 an hour. Sole pointed out that employers know there are a limited amount of jobs, so when they see you’re an ex-offender, they take advantage of it. “The things they make you do because you’re an ex-offender is appalling,” adding, “They just wanted me to be a worker, they weren’t trying to make me a boss.”

Sole didn’t want anybody to be able to oppress him so he figured out how to be his own boss. Continue Reading

Samuel Callahan is a single father raising his 14-year-old daughter, the youngest of his seven children. The father-daughter pair share a one-bedroom apartment in North Minneapolis. It’s cramped quarters, and yet the small family still does not get to spend enough time together. Callahan has been working at a Taco Bell for the past four years, but in 2016 he also started picking up shifts at a McDonald’s in order to make ends meet. In total, Callahan works 17 hours a day, six days per week. Continue Reading

This week: Friday’s upcoming vote on $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis, new funding available to clean up polluted sites in historically marginalized neighborhoods and the latest on the lawsuit between Gov. Mark Dayton and the state Legislature. Continue Reading

Gov. Mark Dayton signed a dozen state budget bills into law on May 30, preventing a state government shutdown and signing off on the Legislature’s $46 billion budget, despite calling many of the Republican lawmakers’ provisions “galling and indefensible” and a “reprehensible sneak attack.”

But just because Dayton signed the bills does not mean he approves all the measures. In an effort to bring state legislators back for yet another special session, Dayton made a line-item veto, effectively defunding the budgets of the state House and Senate themselves. Among the multiple issues Dayton wants to renegotiate – largely taxes – the governor also wants a provision making it even more difficult for undocumented immigrants to receive drivers licenses to be stricken from the Public Safety budget. Continue Reading

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Today more than 2 million Americans, including around 10,000 men and women in Minnesota, are in jail or prison in the United States, the highest mass incarceration rate of any country in the world.

On Tuesday, Nov. 20, “States of Incarceration”—the first national traveling exhibit and coordinated public dialogue exploring the history and future of mass incarceration in the US—will open in the Irvine Gallery at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

The States of Incarceration project was created by university students from around the country, including University of Minnesota students who researched Minnesota’s high rate of Native imprisonment, which is 12 times higher than the white population.

In the exhibit, visitors can examine how centuries of Native trauma has shaped Minnesota prison population today, including unfair treaties, forced removal by the US government, the US-Dakota War of 1862 and Dakota concentration camp at Fort Snelling, and the Indian boarding school movement.

The exhibit also contains new content created by the Minnesota History Center and local partners, exploring local stories as well as artifacts made by formerly incarcerated people. Plus, see Pine Ridge artist Quinton Maldonado’s collection of ledger drawings—an art form created in captivity by Native people—where he draws parallels between Native history and Native imprisonment today.

“Long-term imprisonment is a new phase of historic trauma, breaking up families and eroding balance,” Maldonado says in his artist statement.

“States of Incarceration” is a project of Humanities Action Lab and was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities, Whiting Foundation, Open Society Foundations and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Local contributors to the exhibit are Oyate Hotanin, American Indian Prison Project, InEquality, American Indian Movement Interpretive Center, The Circle of Peace Movement, Calee Cecconi, and the following programs at the University of Minnesota: the Institute for Advanced Study, the Heritage Studies and Public History program, the Department of History, the Department of American Indian Studies, the School of Architecture, the College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Libraries, and Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services.

About the Minnesota History Center
The Minnesota History Center holds the vast collections of the Minnesota Historical Society and is home to the History Center museum with innovative exhibits, Gale Family Library, café and museum store. The History Center is located at 345 W. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul. For more information, visit www.minnesotahistorycenter.org.

The Minnesota Historical Society is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. MNHS collects, preserves and tells the story of Minnesota’s past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs and book publishing. Using the power of history to transform lives, MNHS preserves our past, shares our state’s stories and connects people with history. Visit us at mnhs.org.

The Minnesota Historical Society is supported in part by its Premier Partners: Xcel Energy and Explore Minnesota Tourism.

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100 Years and Counting is one of three inaugural exhibitions in the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s new facility in the Pioneer Endicott building, opening in December 2018. The exhibition features approximately 45 works from the M’s remarkable collection of American art, from 100 years ago to today.

It invites a tumble into the depth and breadth of the M’s collection: early 20th century paintings, photographs, sculptures by Paul Manship and George Morrison, incredible ink and pastel drawings, mid-century studio craft, sculpture, prints, contemporary Native American art, and up-to-the-minute recent acquisitions by outstanding American artists.

This exhibition proves the point that Minnesota Museum of American Art has been around awhile—over 100 years, in fact—and that its American art collection reflects that visual trajectory. It also shows that the new M, in this stunning new building and home, is likewise continuing to grow, to thrive, to build—indeed, counting our years and our way into a new era of significance, art, and visual engagement.

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Learn traditional Somali dances, like the Jaandheer, in a workshop led by the Somali Museum Dance Troupe. Meaning big leap or step, Jaandheer originates in northern Somalia and

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Learn traditional Somali dances, like the Jaandheer, in a workshop led by the Somali Museum Dance Troupe. Meaning big leap or step, Jaandheer originates in northern Somalia and is danced at most Somali weddings and festive occasions.

The Somali Museum Dance Troupe studies and performs traditional dances from all regions of Somalia. Comprised of teens and young adults from the greater Twin Cities area, the troupe has performed for countless corporate, private and public events across Minnesota, North Dakota, Virginia, Ohio, and Texas.

This dance workshop is appropriate for all ages and is offered in conjunction with the exhibit Somalis + Minnesota.

Support for this program has been provided by the Marney and Conley Brooks Fund.

“Learning about what happened in the Rondo community while interviewing those who witnessed their homes being destroyed was heartbreaking,” says Morris. “It was astounding the resilience they showed. It lit a fire in me. Rondo never stopped trying to rebuild what was there. It gave me a lot of confidence in myself to go after what I love to do in life. I learned that I-94 going through Rondo was a power struggle to limit what the black community could actually do. It didn’t stop us at all.”

The 30-minute film screening will immediately be followed by a Q&A with the youth filmmakers and elders from the film and Rondo community. Refreshments will be served.

Storymobile, led by director Melvin Giles and manager Darius Gray, wanted to collect and preserve the historical memory of the Rondo neighborhood from a multigenerational perspective. Storymobile worked with Rondo youth to record stories of Rondo that give an intimate view of the impact the destruction of Rondo and construction of Interstate 94 had on people’s lives and how that impact continues today.

“If we know who we are and who we came from, it helps us to go forward in our lives,” says Donna Evans in the film. “If we know nothing about our history, then how are we to know about our future?”

Saint Paul Almanac is a literary-centered arts organization that has been publishing an annual book of Saint Paul stories and poems for more than a decade. We share stories across cultures and cultivate dialogue to promote understanding, relationships, and collaborative action.

In Black Ink is a social enterprise supporting and creating a rich literary culture in the African heritage community in Minnesota.

HSRA is dedicated to providing all young people a chance to realize their full potential, despite any previous setbacks. As we engage students through music and the exploration and operation of the music business, we demonstrate that core learning areas and real-world, twenty-first century skills can be acquired at the same time. More than just earning a high school diploma, HSRA prepares students for a positive post-secondary education and life.

SPNN’s mission is to empower people to use media and communications to better lives, use authentic voice, and build common understanding.

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The East Side Freedom Library invites you to join us for part II of our celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Labor and Black Lives Matter
Monday, January 21, 2019 at

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The East Side Freedom Library invites you to join us for part II of our celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Labor and Black Lives MatterMonday, January 21, 2019 at 7pm

ESFL continues our exploration of the labor movement’s relationship with other social movements with a panel which will discuss the past, present, and future of the labor movement’s engagement with movements against racism. Today, the most energized of these movements is the Movement for Black Lives and its associated organizations and struggles. Our panel will include participants in these movements as well as the labor movement.

Come join the conversation!

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East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul
Free and open to all
info@eastsidefreedomlibrary.org and 651-230-3294

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(Monday) 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

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East Side Freedom Libraryemail info@eastsidefreedomlibrary.org or call 651-230-3294